The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Monday, June 12, 2017

The Democrats and the Republicans offer nothing but war and misery to
all the world’s peoples, but we in the belly of the beast have a special
responsibility to dismantle this juggernaut of planetary death. This
year’s United National Anti-War Coalition conference, in Richmond, will
have the largest Black presence in UNAC’s history: more than a third of
the speakers will be Black, including several from Black Agenda Report
and Ajamu Baraka, who is pulling together the Black Alliance for Peace.
The Black Alliance for Peace is already part of the UNAC coalition. As
Ajamu Baraka says: “The Democratic Party wants war with Russia, the
Trump administration wants war with China, so it’s up to the people to
demand and struggle for peace against both pro-imperialist parties.”

In other words, what we may have witnessed in Comey’s ballyhooed
testimony on Thursday was just the latest chapter in a “soft coup” to
remove Trump – either through a forced resignation or impeachment. The
thinking is that Trump is so incompetent that “wise men” must step in to
“correct a mistake” made by the U.S. electorate and made possible by
the Constitution’s Electoral College system, which enabled Trump to win
the presidency despite losing the popular vote,But the American people are not supposed to see it that way. After
all, the realization that U.S. intelligence chieftains might be
conspiring to overturn a constitutional election of a U.S. president
could be most upsetting and unsettling, even if one assumes that they
are sincerely doing what they think is “best for the country.”So, this side of the story remains unspoken, a silence made possible
by the fact that most of the nation’s top news executives and much of
its political elite share the opinion that Trump’s presidency must be
ended and a more traditional chief executive installed.

But no one in authority wants to acknowledge that a “soft coup” is in
the works because that would make America look like a banana republic
to the world. It also could infuriate Trump’s 63 million voters who
might take exception to this sort of “deep state” veto of a duly
certified election.

Strikes in IraqIn Iraq, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 35 engagements against ISIS targets:-- Near Bayji, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and
destroyed three vehicles, two tactical vehicles, two ISIS-held
buildings, an anti-air artillery system and an ISIS staging area.-- Near Kisik, a strike engaged two ISIS tactical units and
destroyed six fighting positions, four car bombs, two mortar systems, a
medium machine gun, and an ISIS staging area.-- Near Mosul, three strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units;
destroyed five fighting positions, two mortar systems, two car bombs, a
supply cache, and an explosives cache; and suppressed a mortar team.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria appears to have used white
phosphorus-loaded munitions on at least two occasions in densely
populated areas of Mosul and in the Islamic State’s de facto capital of
Raqqa, according to videos posted online and human rights groups.
The often-controversial munitions are common in western militaries
and are used primarily to create smoke screens, though they can also be
dropped as an incendiary weapon. When a white phosphorus shell explodes,
the chemical inside reacts with the air, creating a thick white cloud.
When it comes in contact with flesh, it can maim and kill by burning to
the bone.
While international humanitarian law stipulates that civilians must
be protected from all military operations, it also says that countries
must take even more care when using white phosphorus. Additionally,
because of the weapon’s ability to cause grievous and inhumane injuries,
rights groups caution against using white phosphorus to kill enemy
troops if other weapons are available.

Where is the outrage?

Let's be really clear, the left abandoned Iraq and when it did so, it lost it's way.

The series is loosely based on the 2010 film and revolves around the Cody crime family -- a group that carries off robberies. These aren't glamorous heists -- in fact, most recently, they robbed a food truck.

Because that's the life their mother Smurff (Ellen Barkin) introduced them to, yes. But also because there are few other opportunities for them.

Consider it a sign of the economy.

Deran currently dreams of buying a restaurant with his take from the robberies.

Baz struggles to raise his daughter and Pope's usually the one pitching in when Baz's nerves are on edge.

Everyone's on edge.

And in times like that, the stories audiences hold onto are often gangster stories.

It was during The Great Depression, for example, that America embraces James Cagney -- first in THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931).

The reasons for that are complex but the simplest explanation is that, as Americans see the system that's supposed to benefit them turn around and crush them, they root for those who find a way to overcome it.

In real life, some do.

But The Great Deception is so ingrained that even those whose actions buck the system still, like Deran, define 'success' by the end game the system has conditioned them to embrace.

More recently, for example, Steven Soderbergh kicked off a new wave of American film making in 1989 with SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE. The independent film scene was alive with features like GAS, FOOD AND LODGING, EL MARIACHI, GO FISH, CLERKS, DO THE RIGHT THING, RESERVOIR DOGS, DAZED AND CONFUSED, PRISON SONG, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN, PARTY GIRL, TO DIE FOR, THE LIVING END, HENRY FOOL, SLEEP WITH ME, WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE, SLACKER, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO, THE HOUSE OF YES, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, DEAD MAN, PI, THE LAST SEDUCTION, GRACE OF MY HEART, BOUND, GOTTA HAVE IT, METROPOLITAN, BOYS N THE HOOD, BUFFALO '66, ARMY OF DARKNESS, BOTTLE ROCKET, SPANKING THE MONKEY, I LIKE IT LIKE THAT, SCHOOL DAZE, GEORGIA, THE OPPOSITE OF SEX, THE WATERDANCE, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, GEORGE WASHINGTON, SHIVERS, PRIMER, DRUGSTORE COWBOY, and BODIES, REST & ; MOTION.

Those films and many more from the period screwed with convention and narrative and what was acceptable.

That's all gone as students of Syd Field churn out one cookie cutter movie after another.

The 'independent' film scene today isn't independent and is really just a farm for the studios to make their low budget dramas even cheaper than they used to.

That which stands out is either beaten down or co-opted.

Ellen Barkin's Smurf does that with her children and her grandson J (Finn Cole). She's drugging her son Pope, for example. She pulls the strings. If she can't, she's plotting to take her own children down.

Of all the masculinity on display in ANIMAL KINGDOM, the most toxic is that exhibited by the matriarch Smurf.

But, in lieu of a maturity test, we think each voter in a presidential election should have to sign a statement -- and have it witnessed -- agreeing that, in an election, (a) the results are not known until the vote is counted, (b) that anyone may end up the winner and (c) they will abide by the outcome and not spend weeks and months whining after an election.

Hillary Clinton's Temple Prostitutes have sucked up all the oxygen in the room.

Hillary lost, get over it.

Last week, Senator Patrick Leahy declared, "Poverty is 'no state of mind.' Housing is not a political issue; it
is a moral one. In Vermont, we know that housing people first is key to
helping them step out of poverty. With the help of Federal investments
like Homelessness Assistance Grants, states like Vermont have reduced
chronic homelessness by 45 percent, but this is only
possible with help from your Department. Communities across the
country know that, instead, your budget will close emergency shelters
and put people back on the streets."

Poverty, a topic rarely addressed, could have gotten traction.

But instead, we were all wasting our time on 'Russia' and nonsense because that's what The Temple Prostitutes want.

If MSNBC were truly a left -- or even center-left -- network, Leahy's remarks would have been addressed, the budget from the Housing Department would have been discussed -- non-stop.

But it's just another corporate network dedicated to disguising reality.

So instead of poverty discussions, they serve up testimonials to the FBI and CIA.

Mother Jones recently announced it’s “redoubling our Russia reporting”—in
the words of editor Clara Jeffery. Ain’t that rich. What passes for
“Russia reporting” at Mother Jones is mostly just glorified InfoWars
paranoia for progressive marks — a cataract of xenophobic conspiracy
theories about inscrutable Russian barbarians hellbent on subverting our
way of life, spreading chaos, destroying freedom & democracy
& tolerance wherever they once flourished. . . . because they hate
us, because we’re free.Western reporting on Russia has always been garbage, But
the so-called “Russia reporting” of the last year has taken the usual
malpractice to unimagined depths — whether it’s from Mother Jones or MSNBC, or the Washington Post or Resistance heroLouise Mensch.But of all the liberal media, Mother Jones should be most ashamed for
fueling the moral panic about Russian “disinformation”. It wasn’t too
long ago that the Reagan Right attacked Mother Jones for spreading
“Kremlin disinformation” and subverting America. There were threats and
leaks to the media about a possible Senate investigation into Mother
Jones serving as a Kremlin disinformation dupe, a threat that hung over
the magazine throughout the early Reagan years.

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Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).